Apostolic Lutheran Church of America
The Apostolic Lutheran Church of America is a Laestadian Lutheran church denomination established by Finnish American and Norwegian immigrants in the 1800s. They came mainly from northern Finland and northern Norway where they had been members of the state churches. Most or all members had ties from their home countries to the Laestadian revival movement named after Swedish state church administrator and pastor Lars Levi Laestadius of Pajala, Sweden. Eventually, there were too many arguments between this denomination and the other American Laestadians, and some of the followers of Laestadius were excluded from the sacrament of holy communion. Under the lead of Salomon Korteniemi, the excluded members formed a congregation of their own in December 1872, under the name the Salomon Korteniemi Lutheran Society. In 1879 this name was changed to the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation. As other congregations of Finns in Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon were organized on the same basis, they came into fellowship with this body under the name the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Church, or, as it is usually called, the Apostolic Lutheran Church.
The ALC-Laestadians are called "Mickelsens" by other Laestadians, after 20th Century leader Reverend Andrew Mickelsen(1897-1983). The organization is also referred to by members and non-members as the Federation.
In 2009, membership in the denomination was estimated to include 6,000 baptized members. Its ministers are mostly lay preachers. It has sizable congregations in Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, New Hampshire and in various other countries, such as Canada and Finland. The national organization is governed by an elected board (the Central Board) which meets regularly at various locations across the United States and Canada, and individual member churches are governed by elected boards. The ALCA has no central headquarters facility.
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